As part of a series titled “Film Feature”, 15 Minutes Max spoke to students who submitted videos to the 2017 competition. The following interview is with Rezart Bushati, a student at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York.
We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we did talking to him about his film, Hidden Music.
Can you talk a bit about your film?
I interviewed my father who was born in Albania, a small country in the Balkan region. He was born during a time when Albania had communist idealism and with that, there were a lot of restrictions, one of them being the restriction of music. My father and a group of friends would sneak together and they would listen to music on the radio.
Are you from Albania as well?
I was born in Shkodra, Albania and am the first generation coming here. We came here just over 5 years ago when we moved to Albany. We already had family here so they helped us get stabilized and I went to Albany High School.
How did you go about interviewing your father since he’s someone you already know so well?
I knew the story I wanted to tell because he has told me once before and it stuck with me. After getting the big sense of the story I prepared questions I would ask him in front of the camera. I knew he would be way more comfortable speaking in Albanian, so we’d do a couple scenes of the same question. In the end we had fun!
What did you use to edit?
I used Adobe Premiere to edit. It was very improvisational, learn as you go. After a while it became pretty simple though!
What artists or filmmakers inspire you?
My professor introduced us to a lot of artists last semester. I like DuChamp, and the idea that art can be anything. It did something to my brain where I didn’t see art as a straightforward thing. It opened so many options!
What are some of your favorite films?
500 Days of Summer and I Am Legend.
But wait, there’s more! Listen to a portion of the interview here.
To watch Hidden Music visit, https://goo.gl/6uUU9a.
15 Minutes Max 